


To the East

by Daebakinc



Category: EXO, Kpop - Fandom
Genre: Angst, EXO - Freeform, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, Other, Romance, kpop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-23
Updated: 2019-02-23
Packaged: 2019-11-04 13:58:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17899409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daebakinc/pseuds/Daebakinc
Summary: Baby, you know I just wanna leave tonight. We can go anywhere we want, drive down to the coast, jump in the seat. Just take my hand and come with me. - Halsey and Khalid, Eastside





	To the East

Kyungsoo’s Corvette rumbles to a stop on the side of the diner. You don’t have to see its distinctive cobalt blue coloring or even your boyfriend himself. You’ve spent too many hours riding around in that car, first when it was his brother’s, then when his brother passed it on to him. You know that car’s sounds as well as you know the nuances of Kyungsoo’s voice.

“I’m taking a break,” you tell your manager, walking to the back. No one’s come through the door in hours and no one’s about to. Not when the food tastes like it does.

Head in his phone as he leans on the counter, your manager grunts.

Kyungsoo is already leaning against the hood, waiting, when you step into the evening air. Orange from the newly lit streetlamps and red from the traffic light across the street blend like paint across his face, his eyes darker with dusk shadows. His jaw is sharper, his cheekbones more defined, his hair cut short, but when you look at your boyfriend, you can still see him as he was.

That quiet teenage boy with his earbuds who only gave a glance when you sat beside him, taking the only empty seat on the bus. Every day after, you sat with him. You read, he listened to his music, no talking. But it was comfortable like that. He left you in peace to read, you left him in peace to listen. Together, you formed a tiny island of peace in the chaos that is the back seat of a school bus.

You didn’t even know his name the day you somehow forgot not only your book, but your backup book as well. Slumped in the seat, arms folded, you were trying to not think about the boredom awaiting you. Something nudged your shoulder.

Your silent seatmate of months held out an earbud. You glanced at him, catching his eye. The corner of his lips curved in a tentative smile. He looked away at your quiet thanks and turned up the volume.

It only took two months to escalate to hand-holding and texts traded beneath the blankets with the stars as your only supervision. Another three for a first kiss given and taken that tasted like perfection and the vanilla ice cream you shared. Another five for Kyungsoo to confess in a whisper that you were his meant to be with the fervor of youthful forevers. And you believed him with all the power of your 17-year-old heart.

You are both older now. A little wiser, a little jaded. Your high school dreams are dreams deferred for the reality of bills needing to be paid. Your friends aren’t the same, some walking out of your life and others tossed out. But what was between you and Kyungsoo, that is unchanged.

Despite the doubters, some of your families among them, you are still together. Still devoted. Still determined to stick a big one to the world and make it. One day, you’ll trade in the tiny apartment you currently share for the house with a yard with room for the family you both want. One day, you’ll trade in the crap jobs you have for ones that bring you joy. One day.

Most days, that “one day” feels like it’s lifetimes away. Still, as long as you have Kyungsoo with you, you’ll live each of those lifetimes without complaint.

As if reading your thoughts, Kyungsoo’s lips form a smile. Your heart sinks when that smile flies away in the next second. Without asking, you know.

“I’m sorry, Soo,” you sigh softly.

He shrugs, trying to play it off like he doesn’t care. As you step closer, you can see his eyes. Red on the edges and wet, they betray him. He wanted this part. Hungrily. Desperately.

Working every day at the dead-end factory is poisoning him. Doing its best to turn him into a bitter old man who shakes his fist at the world for the misery it condemned him to. You watch him struggle to hang onto his acting dreams every night you lay beside him. To hang onto his hope. 

You never let him see, but your inability to help him breaks your heart. When you’re alone in the apartment after sending him off with lunch and a kiss. Looking at your shared laptop with its search history full of casting calls that never call Kyungsoo back, you cry alone in your kitchen. He has the talent to make it big, you know it. If only someone would give him the chance to prove it. You just want him happy. You want him to live, not just survive.

Kyungsoo holds out his hands. You wipe yours on your apron before sliding your palms into his. He tugs you between his legs. The way you settle against each other is like a homecoming. Everything in world is suddenly right. There is no world. None but you and him and your hearts that naturally match rhythms.

His hands press into your waist, the back of your neck. He grips your like he’s falling and you’re his parachute. Kyungsoo presses a hard kiss against your temple. “Come away with me,” he murmurs.

“Where?”

“Does it matter where?”

You don’t have to think. No, it doesn’t. “Give me a second.”

Kissing him quickly, you open the door to toss your apron on a hook. “I’m leaving. Family emergency.” The door shuts before you can hear the manager’s reply. You doubt he really cares anyway.

Kyungsoo has the passenger door open and the Corvette running.

You slide onto the seat and breathe in the smell of old leather and Kyungsoo’s cologne. Buckling in, you ask, “All set, my captain. Destination?”

He doesn’t answer right away. Then, he says, “The sun.”

===========================================================================================

The sun hasn’t risen yet when Kyungsoo kisses your forehead to wake you up. “We’re here,” he whispers, leaning back to let you sit up.

His jacket slides onto your lap as you stretch. “Where’s here?” you ask through a yawn.

“Look out the window.”

You hear it before you see it, your fingers rubbing your sleep-heavy eyes. The roaring push and pull every heart recognizes on a primal level. Salty brine slips past your hands to your nose, tickling awake memories of days of freedom from everything but water, sand, and sky.

The ocean stretches beyond the windshield, the softest shade of black. On the horizon, it kisses a sky whose color is so grey it borders on lavender with the promise of a coming dawn. Hints of gold and pink struggle through the clouds hovering above the white ocean foam.

Your door opens. “Come on.” Kyungsoo holds out his hand to help you out of the car.

Asphalt gives way to sand right before the Corvette’s nose. Kyungsoo stops to kick off his shoes, tossing them onto the car’s hood. He waits for you to do the same, tightening his grip on your hand to stabilize you.

Your feet sink into the night cool sand as you walk towards the water. If not for Kyungsoo’s solid presence beside you, your own beating heart, and the sound of the ocean, you’d think you were inside a painting. The summer-shabby hotels and souvenir shops sit silent with lonely neon signs and shuttered fronts on the beach’s edge. Even their lights seem dulled and sleepy. No tourists meander along the boardwalk, no locals jog along the beach. Not even the seagulls are awake at this hour.

The only signs of life are you and Kyungsoo.

He stops at the waterline, the waves teasingly licking the sand just beyond his toes. As he stares out to the horizon, you wonder what he sees. 

You want to ask what made him want to drive all these hours to a lonely beach. But you don’t. Kyungsoo will tell you what you need to know when he’s ready. His thoughts may take time to form, tumbling around his mind for hours, days, until he can speak them just as he means, but he always reveals them to you. Only you.

A sliver of blinding white appears on the horizon as Kyungsoo’s fingers ease their grip on your hand so they can interlock with yours. Against the cold breeze coming off the water, they’re blessedly warm. “Would you run away with me if I asked?” he asks.

“What do you mean?”

“Run away. Put a line through everything so it’s like nothing’s happened. Just leave and go somewhere new. Somewhere no one knows us or what we’ve done and haven’t done.”

You feel his eyes on your face, watching for your answer as much as listening for it. Still processing, you stall by replying, “A fresh start, you mean.”

“Yes. A real one.”

Kyungsoo fishes into the pocket of his jeans and raises your joined hands, turning your upwards with his palm cupping it beneath. Without a word, he gently puts his other hand over yours. Something warm drops lightly against your skin.

When he lifts his hand away, a thin silver ring sits on your palm. Unornamented, the simple band catches the first rays of the oncoming sun so it winks at you with silent promise.  
Your heart thuds like a stone against your chest. Anticipation, excitement, fear thrum through it as it races. You look into Kyungsoo’s eyes. 

“It’s all I can afford right now,” he says, his voice deeper than the waves. He turns to face you and moves closer. “You deserve more. So much more. But I’ll give you everything I have without hesitation. Always, if you’ll have me.”

“Kyungsoo… you’re not just doing this because you didn’t get the part, right?” you ask hesitantly. “If you want to move to a new place to try for more acting opportunities, we can without… this.”

You’ve discussed getting married more than once while lying wrapped in each other in bed, sitting at opposite ends of the couch, holding hands in the car. But it was never the right time. There was always this bill to pay, that thing you needed to devote time to. No room for getting ahead, let alone planning a wedding.

“It isn’t,” Kyungsoo assures you. “I’ve wasted enough time worrying about being able to provide for you. We’ve made it this far, haven’t we? I don’t want to keep waiting for my big break to commit. I want you. If you want to wait more, if this is just a stupid idea, that’s okay too but—”

“Do Kyungsoo. You already have me.” You smile and touch his cheek with your fingertips. 

As you look at him, love rises like a tidal wave to spread through every inch of your body. The more you think about it, the more you realize there’s nothing holding you back, nothing anchoring you to that city. Nothing except Kyungsoo. Wherever he goes, that is where you belong.

“Aren’t you going to put this on me?” you ask, lifting your hand with the ring. When he just stares at you, his eyes even wider than usual, you giggle. “Why did you bother asking if you’re so surprised I said ‘yes’? I love you and I’d run away with you a million times over.”

“I was still scared you’d say ‘no’,” he admits. Kyungsoo takes the ring and drops to one knee, slipping the ring on. He captures your gaze, brushing his lips over your finger with the ring.

All the blood in your body rushes to your heart so you feel like it’s about to burst. Falling to your knees with him, you wrap your arms around his neck to pull him in for a deep kiss. The rising tide splashes cold against your legs as the newborn sun kisses your face with warmth. But both are outdone by Kyungsoo’s kiss and the way it makes you feel alive. 

More alive than ever before with the promise of a new life and new beginnings.


End file.
